We Racine Dominican Sisters join with other faith-based leaders and organizations in their call to our elected officials to enact comprehensive immigration reform legislation that affirms the right of every person to earn a livelihood and live as a family through a safe and humane immigration system consistent with our Christian values.

We acknowledge and support the U.S. and Mexican Catholic Bishops, as they, too, call for comprehensive reform of current immigrant policies in their pastoral letter on migrants, “Strangers No Longer: Together on a Journey of Hope.”

As faith-based people, we call attention to the moral dimensions of public policy and the need to pursue policies that uphold human dignity.

We believe that immigration reform must include a system that facilitates legal status and family unity in the interest of serving the God-given dignity and rights of every individual. Our diverse faith traditions teach us to welcome our brothers and sisters with love and compassion.

We stand in solidarity with our brothers and sisters supporting their worker rights, especially those related to collective bargaining. We trust their voices will be heard and legislation created to honor this sacred right. The Justice and Rights Council of the Racine Dominicans, Jean Verber, OP, chair. Racine, WI

The Racine Dominican Sisters and Associates stand in support of human rights by opposing the trafficking of women, children and men for sexual exploitation and international works of enslavement. We commit our prayer, study resources and action to end this criminal activity against our brothers and sisters.

As a religious community, the Racine Dominicans affirms the right of every person to earn a livelihood; to family unity; and to physical and emotional safety. Informed by these beliefs, we determine current U.S. immigration law disregards these rights for millions, many of whom are U.S. citizens, resulting in serious workplace abuse of undocumented immigrants, in harmful family separation, and in widespread fear within the immigrant community.

We also affirm the right and responsibility of the religious community to extend sanctuary to those whose legal status causes them to fear for their safety and the safety of their family, to lose their livelihood and to be unjustly deported.

Rooted in these principles, we commit ourselves to:

1. Support the religious communities extending sanctuary
2. Advocate for the protection of immigrants against hate, workplace discrimination and unjust deportation
3. Reveal, through education and advocacy, the impact current and proposed legislation has on immigrant
workers and their families
4. Take a public, moral stand for just and comprehensive immigration reform

Fresh, safe drinking water is fast becoming the world’s most treasured and scarce resource. Its value is rooted in the sustainability of life on the planet. It is the common heritage of all creation, a sacred gift.

Racine Dominicans believe that access to enough safe, clean, and affordable water for personal and domestic use is a basic human right. And further, we believe that water should be held in the public domain as a common good for all.

Therefore,
We commit to the following:

educating ourselves and others about the reality and consequences of actions that threaten the water supply, including study of the Great Lakes Compact;

promoting what preserves and conserves water supply;

engaging in campaigns to overturn policies of privatization of water, especially in poor areas;

working on issues and campaigns to reverse the effects of global warming.

A further statement endorsing Wisconsin’s legislative initiative to promote measures that enforce the stewardship goals of the Great Lakes Compact in Wisconsin is now being drafted. The Great Lakes Compact, created through collective legislative action of the member states in the Great Lakes Basin, requires that each state designate how it will “promote the orderly, integrated, and comprehensive development, use and conservation of the water resources of the Great Lakes Basin.

As Racine Dominicans, we believe that all life is sacred and created by God; therefore, we see all human life as significant and valuable.

When governments implement the death penalty, the life of the convicted person is devalued; the possibility of change is eliminated if that person’s life ends. The gift of reconciliation must be offered to all individuals without exception. For this reason, we oppose the death penalty and urge its elimination from all criminal codes.

We propose that the Racine Dominicans endorse the corporate stance of the Federation of the Dominican Sisters USA by supporting a moratorium on the planting of genetically engineered crops for consumer or commercial use until such time as this technology is proven safe, and by calling for the labeling of foods already containing genetically engineered ingredients.